Monthly Archives: July 2016

Probably this is the longest spell that I have to live alone without my wife. It’s about a month now since Angeline has been away to attend to Jeremy, my youngest son, who is furthering his studies in Melbourne Polytechnic. This is really good news for Jeremy for having his mum there to see to things till he gets settled in his stay and studies there. We are all glad that he is finally seeing the light at the end of a long tunnel. Praise the Lord for his guiding hand to lead him to a good future like his brother, Hilary.

However, on the lighter side, her addition to the family equation there has become a subtraction for me over here. For this period, I had a chance to experience her duties of attending to the house and caring for my personal and professional needs. I had to make my bed (albeit still clumsily), boil the water, make my own coffee, look after the cleanliness and safety of the house, prepare my own food – these are just some of the chores that I have to do, and slowly getting used to it.

Despite this, it was tough and disorienting for a working professional like me to adjust to doing house chores which I must admit didn’t strike me as difficult and demanding in the past until now that I have to do them! The images of Angeline often run through my mind while I’m doing all these, missing her but most of all, appreciating her for such support, care and love which I took for granted all these time!

My advice to all the men out there who haven’t lifted much of a finger to assist their dear wives to take cognisance of this very important person in your life. My memories also went to my late mum and dad who had to look after 7 children with their bare hands for having a maid was beyond our financial reach. How much they had to do for us has now become more real to me.

So give them the respect, take care of them, appreciate their support, love them dearly and never, never take them for granted. I’m so glad I had this chance to realise what a wonderful person Angeline has been and still is in my life.

When I was the HR Director in the travel business, my instruction to my HR Managers was to look out for basic qualities in job candidates no matter what job they were applying for.

One of the basic qualities I was referring to is the willingness to serve. Serving people basically means wearing a smile on your face; displaying polite mannerism, staying calm and be willing to help. Employees without these basic qualities can badly destroy any company’s good name.

There was one ‘misfit’ whom I had the unfortunate opportunity to encounter. The person was an Air Asia ground staff at KLIA 2 airport, when I was there the other day to send my wife, Angeline, and my son, Jeremy, off to Melbourne. What would have been a good sendoff became otherwise when this young and pretty lady (who belied her good looks) turned ugly by shooing me off with a stern voice: “Go check with the Information Counter” when I asked her how to get to the Skybus station. It would only require her to point to the correct direction (a 3-second job).

I wouldn’t let her off so easily when she displayed another round of rudeness in falsely accusing me of molesting her for wanting to get her attention, when all I wanted to tell her was what customer service should be!

I’m glad the supervisor was cooperative in giving me her name as I intend to report her to the Customer Service Department for their follow up action on how to rehabilitate her and staff like her!

Don’t get me wrong – while we should always be reasonable and understanding customers, we should assertively put things in order when these staff misbehave beyond reasons. Never leave it unattended. Only with this can we correct what is wrong by getting them to realise bad attitude doesn’t pay.

Furthermore, it is also to teach them to make a positive (and not a negative) difference to someone’s life. Only then will there be a chance for us to help make this world a better place with
nice-natured people around us.

As coaches, we often ask our clients a popular question, “What is your value”? Many people struggle trying to answer this question not because they don’t know their value but more of what value actually means!

My simple way of defining my value is ‘doing what will make me most happy! So if someone asks me this question, my instant answer will be ‘EATING‘ !!!

And I can swear to it that I mean it! The few things in my life have ‘food’ or ‘eating’ in its top 5 bucket list.

So where did I pick this up? I guess it has been an ‘era of deprivation’ that got me realise the big value of eating! My history of food had been laced with many incidents of starving due to no money or punishments, and my big appetite for food that my family’s financial position could not meet.

All of these factors stirred the food cravings in me till this very day. It’s apt to say that my other life mission is ‘live to eat’ from then till now. Yes, it may be unhealthy as the side effects could lead to a tummy round my waist and an overweight issue (that hasn’t threatened my life, yet).

Overall, I have managed to keep my cholesterol and sugar level under control with some discipline here and there. So in this sense, I’m quite healthy, so to speak.

So for many years now, my ‘Live to Eat’ mission is still very much on course, simply eating what I enjoy like the spicy stuff such as curries, tom yam, curry mee, and my ever-favourite, Mee Rebus for as long as I can. Peking duck and shark fin (my apologies to those who are against it) are also in my eating list.

There are more favourites but I stop here to maintain brevity of this blog post.

Everyone has values. Many of us differ. I have mine. I’m glad that I know what it is clearly.

Is yours food too? If not, what do you do with passion? Whatever it is, we have a reason to live happily.